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brilliantorinsane · 2 months ago

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Data Gathering: The Belligerent Ghost

For an explanation of this project and the various categories, see Data Gathering: The Pennsylvania Gun.

Ep1, Ep2, Ep3, Ep4

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Writer: Charles Early (co-wroter of Texas Cowgirl)

Director: Sheldon Reynolds

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First Shot: Holmes doing experiments <3

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Introductions: N/A

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Private Matters: N/A

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Looks:

Holmes @ Watson smiles:

3.27

3.35

4.09

5.02

12.45, 13.04, 13.18 - 13.23

16.47

21.13 look at him. Look at this guy he likes Watson SO much.

24.47

25.29, 25.41

Watson @ Holmes smiles:

2.14

2.25

3.27

4.05

6.11

8.51

9.23

14.11

24.54

Shared Moments:

9.36

16.45

Assorted:

1.24 - 5.03: Just Holmes responding to Watson being hurt and distressed with 4.5 minutes intense eye contact at approx. 4 inches from his face. Watson is not remotely disconcerted by this.

1.54: Holmes’ grumpy face when he asks who hit Watson.

2.55: I am irrationally touched by Watson's plaintive expression when Holmes reassures him he couldn’t have made a mistake about Higgins being dead.

5.40 - 5.55: I do just love how attentive Watson is to Holmes’ deductions.

6.09: I like to think Holmes’ amused/bemused expression here is in response to the landlady referring to him as Watson’s “gentleman friend”:

19.21: Holmes turns to look towards the museum curator, who is speaking, but his eye-line has to pass Watson to reach the curator. When he finds Watson looking at him, his gaze hangs out there for a distinct beat, just for the enjoyment of looking at Watson’s eyes I suppose, before finishing his initial project of paying attention to the curator and those international stakes he’s on about.

18.50, 19.42: Possibly does it again at these beats, although the second in particular is much more dubious.

23.19: In which Holmes takes a quick pause from answering the man pointing a gun at them to look to Watson with the reassurance that he believed him all along.

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Touches:

Initiated by Holmes:

1.24: Hand on shoulder

1.43: Hand on shoulder

1.53: Possible (probably accidental) knee brush?

5.08 - 5.12: Hands on shoulders > arm grab > shoulder pat. (Also please note that instead of just pulling away at the end, he fully slides his hand from Watson’s far shoulder across his back and arm).

8.12 - 8.20: hand on arm > jacket pinch to pull Watson out of the room.

Holmes bumping into Watson and pulling his nose ig (off-screen)

21.14 - 21.17: Arm pat > hand on back as they walk off screen.

Initiated by Watson:

1.29: Rapidfire poking

1.48 - 1.50: I’m reasonably sure Watson’s hand bumps Holmes’ at 1.48; accidental for a start, though they hold there for a beat.

8.21 - 8.31: Hand on arm to stop Holmes. Doesn’t stay there for the full ten seconds; pulls his hand away, puts it back, then taps it emphatically.

Incidental:

5.56: Holmes’ hand brushes against Watson’s arm as Watson turns. It would have been easy enough for Holmes to move his hand out of the way, but they’re comfortable enough in each other’s space that he doesn’t bother (/doesn’t want to?)

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Endearments/Compliments:

Holmes @ Watson:

1.21: “Watson, my dear fellow!”

2.51: Reassuring Watson that he’s a very good doctor who knows how tell when people are dead. (Sounds patronizing written out, but Watson was quite shaken and needed the reassurance).

13.38: “My dear Watson”

24.40: “Well done Watson, well done!”

24.47: “My dear fellow”

24.47: “I have sublime confidence in your ability to extricate us from any predicament in which my rashness may place us.” (A continuation of the above bullet-point, but I want the ‘my dears’ separate for synthesis reasons).

25.12: “My dear old chap”

Appreciation:

1.34: Watson (barely audible): “Thank you”

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Medical Examinations:

Before the start of the episode, Watson correctly assesses Higgins as dead, and believes he died of a heart attack. They view the body again at 8.53, but this is primarily for Holmes to examine it, since Watson already has.

It’s unclear whether the heart attack was naturally occurring or induced via poison or something by the curator? I’ll spare the details, but the case itself is … less than immaculately plotted in this episode. There’s lots of elements that seem to indicate the curator murdered Higgins, but during the interrogation at the end Higgins’ death never comes up. My guess is that the curator did murder Higgins in an earlier script, and it was cut out later.

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Crimes for Fun and Profit:

We’ve got breaking and entering and property damage in this one!

As in Cunningham, I cannot overstate how much they did not need to do this. They were working with Lestrade. The museum curator was—well he was very much the thief, but it shouldn’t have been hard to pressure him into cooperation with police backup. But that would have been less fun :(

The vase Holmes breaks is clarified to be a reconstruction, not an original artifact. But it’s still museum property, and once again this was so entirely not a required action. Holmes just takes great joy in scandalizing Watson 😁

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Jealousy: N/A

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Watson and Law Enforcement:

16.30: I wonder whether Lestrade mocking Watson’s ghost story is a step towards Watson becoming more willing to join with Holmes in his mockery of the police?

18.19: Watson does have a bit of a go at Lestrade using Holmes’ methods at the end of the scene.

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Want to go on a Dat—Murder Investigation? N/A

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Showtime:

8.46: Holmes loooves an accent and sucks at them pretty bad 😊 I don’t know if that’s Ronald Howard being bad at accents (and/or having 0 minutes to practice given the rapid shooting schedule), but either way I find it endearing, I love this guy and his little performances. Anyway, we’ve got the first here, in a cockney accent that Dick Van Dyke could have modeled his own after.

15.48: “isn’t it obvious?”

18.19: Lestrade: What’s he [Holmes] talking about? Watson: Art, ghosts, my black eye, and psychology. I love when Watson picks up on how Holmes runs his show and uses it to impress/mess with people (he also did this with Inspector McLeod in Pennsylvania Gun). He’s gathered that you don’t always need to know what the fuck is going on to pull off the cool, smart and mysterious act—just a waggling eyebrow, a few vagaries, and a confident attitude.

Intricate Rituals: Adding this subsection section because: am I convinced any of Holmes antics are absurdly elaborate schemes for getting close to Watson? No. Although I am squinting very very hard at two instances in particular. But is it theoretically possible to read some some of his shows as among the strangest creativity ever to manufacture excuses to touch the skin of other men? Absolutely. Do I find it really really funny to read his antics that way? yes. yes I do.

Holmes played dress-up and pulled Watson’s nose for case reasons, but I’m tentatively putting this here because fully bumping into Watson does seem more than altogether necessary.

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Watch What I Say, Not What I Do:

5.04: Watson protests leaving the house to investigate the ghost who punched him, yet following a singular protest of ‘I’m in no condition to leave the house’, he’s standing before Holmes can get three words into his counter-argument. And while Watson levies protests as they go, he does this while slipping past Holmes to march out the door ahead of him.

Once again Watson protests mightily about breaking into the museum, while following Holmes right on in.

Contrast the intensity of his anti museum-breaking protests to his halfhearted objected to Holmes getting them held at gunpoint again. "You didn't have to invite him in here to catch us, you put us in rather an awkward position" (24.44), he says, with about the intensity of reminding your flatmate to please clean their dishes before your friends pop over for dinner. And then Watson forgets to be even that hint of annoyance upon receipt of one (1) compliment. Ridiculous man 💜

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Knight in Shining Armour:

Physical Danger:

Note Watson's exclamation as they enter the museum: "Look here, have we broken into the rear of the museum? Because if so Holmes, really I don't know what's going to happen to us! (21.39 - 21.44). Whatever nonsense Holmes gets himself into, Watson will be right there suffering the consequences with him.

I've always thought Watson's sudden interest in the broken vase/rug pull was one of his less elegant stratagems, but hey, in the show logic it worked. So I'm once again giving him double-points for being badass and clever about it.

Remember this line from Holmes? “Oh, my dear fellow, I have sublime confidence in your ability to extricate us from any predicament in which my rashness may place us” (24.47). So yeah Holmes has officially appointed Watson his valiant knight. Getting damseled so Watson can be big and strong and clever and save them both is threatening to become his new favourite hobby.

Emotional Distress:

Nothing from Watson I can think of here; this episode is a reversal of the norm in which Holmes has a turn at care-taking.

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For Watson’s Ears Only:

I didn't catch much in this episode; Holmes has Watson to himself for most of the really exciting bits.

However, at the climax they're being held at gunpoint and Holmes is answering the curator's questions. Partway through his gaze shifts to Watson, and he continues to address Watson specifically as he explains what had happened the night of his ghostly encounter. (23.18 - 23.41). It's very, 'my best friend needs his sense of reality restored, so you and your gun will just have to wait'.

Asides:

As always Holmes can't resist a snipe at Lestrade, and turns to Watson to deliver it (9.33).

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You've Gone Too Far:

13.41: “Look here Holmes, this whole Higgins affair has gone too far.” - there's the phrasing, but in this case it's directed at the situation, not Holmes. 22.04: “Holmes, what are you doing, this is wanton destruction, I’ve never seen anything like this in my life, I forbid you to—I didn’t know this side to your character Holmes, I’m shocked" - and here we don't have the phrasing, but do have the general sentiment directed at Holmes.

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Watson and Women:

13.59: Watson: “I stayed rather later at the club than usual, there was a chap from Afghanistan and he was awfully interesting—” here Holmes interrupts.

I understand this doesn’t seem remotely relevant to this section. Or to anything. That’d be because at the moment it isn’t, but I’ll want it for reference later.

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Violin:

12.16: The first time Holmes plays violin! He’s not very good <3

I can never decide if Holmes is self-aware about his poor playing. In this case, is Holmes playing violin when Watson returns after the indignity of getting his nose tweaked (by Holmes) as an attempt at soothing apology? Or is he perfectly aware his playing is grating and doing it to indulge his love for fucking with Watson?

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Gender Fuckery: N/A

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Climax Precautions:

Well Holmes' choices in this episode would be the opposite of that. As Watson notes (24.43), Holmes straight up engineers them facing the curator in the museum alone.

Alternatively, to refer again to Holmes' confidence in Waton's "ability to extricate us from any predicament in which my rashness may place us", Holmes' precautionary measure was having a Watson.

When they get held at gunpoint in Cunningham, Holmes looks startled and frighted. Not this time! We don't get an immediate reaction shot when the curator enters, but Holmes is chilling this whole stick-up. Takes a seat, chats about the case. Makes 0 effort to find a solution. My man's just hanging out while he waits for Watson to do something clever to rescue them.

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Final Shot:

Holmes looking at a fuming Watson sheepishly after revealing that he was the nose-pulling culprit.

#the belligerent ghost #data gathering #i stayed up later than i ought to have finishing this 😅#the finishing touches always take longer than i expect!#howard holmes #sherlock holmes 1954 #sherlock holmes #john watson

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